Kennitala in Iceland as a Foreigner

A Humiliating Experience

Back in 2008 I met the love of my life, who also happens to be an Icelandic Citizen. She has lived half her life abroad. Her family however still resides in Iceland, so we visit a few times a year. In the summer months we spend 5 weeks, traveling around the country and spending time in Reykjavik with relatives. The same is true for the Christmas period. Then there is the odd travel in between to this beautiful land of fire and ice. We married in Iceland in 2012.

I am a Swiss Citizen and hold a dual citizenship with the UK since my mother is British. So getting an Icelandic Passport has not been an option as of now - and considering my humiliating experiences with just being able to move around in Iceland - let me believe that Foreigners are not welcome. That in itself is not what I experience in everyday life. I feel that Icelanders are particularly interested in understanding different cultures and are interested in things that are maybe not as usual in this country than in others. I feel equally interested to deeply understand Icelanders. With every interaction with the people I have felt more and more welcome. That can’t be said about the little issue of having a Kennitala, the Icelandic National Identification Number. While I completely value the ease of use of the Kennitala and it’s significant advantages in literally everything you need to do in Iceland, I can only get it by moving my residency for 3 months, which of course I could do - but would just mean playing both the system in Iceland and Switzerland. I did get a Kennitala a while back. You can look it up - maybe - it’s 030574-5089. Now just publishing this, will raise privacy concerns in many countries - but given all it’s advantages it brings - big and small - and how public they are, I don’t have an issue with it personally. I do have a more transparent view towards balancing privacy and ease of use that maybe other people have. But that being said, I feel frustrated and humiliated whenever I want to get around in Iceland. My Kennitala is not registered in the “public” registry that every company gets and has access to. I am on the distinct “UTANGARÐSSKRÁNING”, the Alien Registry. That’s the registry that only a few companies and institutions subscribe to. While I appreciate the technical expression might be Alien, I really do feel like that whenever I try to do things in Iceland. Here’s a list of things that are possible and not possible for me to do in Iceland:

Open a bank account - not possible - I wanted to bring money
Signup for the World Class Fitness - possible - at least I can get in shape
Get a Golf Club Membership - not possible - Fore!
Get Warranty for a printer - not possible - what if the cartridges dry out?
Subscribe to Real Estate Alerts - not possible - I can’t get a mortgage anyway

Here’s what I think needs to happen - for the sake of people investing more into Iceland - make the Alien Registry available to everybody. You can still flag people as Foreigners. I know the database is going to grow bigger and be more distributed - you will get more investment in to the country and it will be much easier for people to do stuff in your beautiful country - sounds like a win-win to me.

#Travel

A Humiliating Experience

That in itself is not what I experience in everyday life. I feel that Icelanders are particularly interested in understanding different cultures and are interested in things that are maybe not as usual in this country than in others. I feel equally interested to deeply understand Icelanders. With every interaction with the people I have felt more and more welcome.

That can’t be said about the little issue of having a Kennitala, the Icelandic National Identification Number. While I completely value the ease of use of the Kennitala and it’s significant advantages in literally everything you need to do in Iceland, I can only get it by moving my residency for 3 months, which of course I could do - but would just mean playing both the system in Iceland and Switzerland.

I did get a Kennitala a while back. You can look it up - maybe - it’s 030574-5089. Now just publishing this, will raise privacy concerns in many countries - but given all it’s advantages it brings - big and small - and how public they are, I don’t have an issue with it personally. I do have a more transparent view towards balancing privacy and ease of use that maybe other people have. But that being said, I feel frustrated and humiliated whenever I want to get around in Iceland.

My Kennitala is not registered in the “public” registry that every company gets and has access to. I am on the distinct “UTANGARÐSSKRÁNING”, the Alien Registry. That’s the registry that only a few companies and institutions subscribe to.

While I appreciate the technical expression might be Alien, I really do feel like that whenever I try to do things in Iceland.

Here’s a list of things that are possible and not possible for me to do in Iceland:

Open a bank account - not possible - I wanted to bring money

Signup for the World Class Fitness - possible - at least I can get in shape

Get a Golf Club Membership - not possible - Fore!

Get Warranty for a printer - not possible - what if the cartridges dry out?

Subscribe to Real Estate Alerts - not possible - I can’t get a mortgage anyway

Here’s what I think needs to happen - for the sake of people investing more into Iceland - make the Alien Registry available to everybody. You can still flag people as Foreigners.

I know the database is going to grow bigger and be more distributed - you will get more investment in to the country and it will be much easier for people to do stuff in your beautiful country - sounds like a win-win to me.

Kennitala in Iceland as a Foreigner

A Humiliating Experience

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Kennitala in Iceland as a Foreigner

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